The Alps and Allemagne

I'm writing this during my spare time between studying for exams, taking exams, packing, and in general stressing out. However, last week was probably one of my favorites since coming to France, so it sort of balances the craziness of this week.

On Sunday, I went skiing in the Alps for the second time, and it was just as fun as the first time. It took some getting used to because the ski resort was set up completely different than the first place we had gone, but I liked the setup by the end of the day. We all ended up with mild bruising around our calves from the ski boots, but I was definitely in the best shape on the ride home. Unfortunately, I have no proof of this because all three of us forgot our cameras!

It rained most of the week from Monday-Wednesday. It looked like the skies were clearing up Wednesday afternoon, so I went to play football with Josh, his sister, and his friend Nate (they were visiting for Spring Break), and as soon as we got to the field, it started pouring again. We decided to stick it out and play mud football instead, which must have looked like an interesting sight to all the Frenchies who saw us playing. And let me tell you, by the time we were done, we were all soaked and covered in mud. It was in my hair, and all over my clothes. Luckily, I had taken my shoes off to keep them from getting completely gross. But that meant my feet were also covered in mud. Needless to say, it was fun.

Thursday morning, I woke up and caught a flight to Dusseldorf at 9 am with Josh, Abby, and Josh's visitors. We got to the airport and stepped off the plane into the middle of nowhere. And it smelled like manure. We then found out that the city of Dusseldorf is actually an hour away from the airport, so we hopped on a bus and then a train to get to the city, then hopped on a tram, got lost, got Starbucks, asked for multilingual directions, guessed a little, and finally found our hostel. Which turned out to be really nice (for a hostel)! We explored the city a little bit once we had all gotten settled in, but spent most of our time waiting for our food, or shopping.

The next day, we slept in because we were all exhausted, went to the market in the Altstadt (the old city), and ate lunch there. We left the main part of Dusseldorf and took a train into a suburb with an old ruined castle in it. We may or may not have hopped a fence (a very short one!) in order to see the ruins like we wanted to. We weren't sure why the gate wasn't open because there weren't any hours posted for the ruins, so we spent about 15 minutes exploring what was left of the fortress. The ruins were situated on a river (the Rhine), so we walked along that for a bit before we ran down to the bank and skipped rocks on it for an hour or so. There are lots of pictures. You'll see.

Then we headed back to the train station to get back in to Dusseldorf and walked straight through what looked like the field from Pride & Prejudice. I kid you not! Abby took a pictures as proof.

Then cold, tired, hungry, and wet, we made our way back in to the city to eat dinner at a very typical German-looking restaurant. If it hadn't been Friday, I would have enjoyed a nice big hearty meal full of steak and sausage, but I had to stick with their seared salmon with a side of boiled potatoes. It takes like salmon patties. Which I do not like.

Anyway. We hung out at the hostel that night for a while, tried to go out for one last German beer but ended up having a misadventure, and then came back to the hostel to get some shut eye before we had to get up at 3am to catch our 6am flight.

We made it back safely (after a 140 Euro taxi ride to the airport!) and immediately proceeded to climb the mountain just outside of Aix. It was the second time for me, but the first time for Josh (and obviously) his visitors. By the time we got up and down again, we were all completely worn out and in need of naps.

Now, I need to get back to studying for my exam tomorrow, and then tomorrow night, I'm leaving for Strasbourg with Alexa and Abby! I'll be back Monday morning! In the meantime, check out my new pictures from Germany and climbing the mountain.

Escaping to the Alps

I decided early on that this semester would be full of traveling and seeing Europe. And now, here I am, having been back in France a full two weeks now, and I've already left Aix twice!

Last weekend, a few of my friends and I decided that we would be going skiing this past weekend (the 22nd and 23rd) and that to do so, we would need to be wearing appropriate winter clothing. Which none of us had. So off we went to Marseille to a thrift store that was selling full ski suits (that looked like they were from the 80s) for only 10€! In American money, that's like $12-13. So, it was a really good deal! I got boots, gloves, and a full (absolutely ridiculous-looking) snowsuit all for under 20€. You'll see the pictures and understand. If anyone in the pictures doesn't look like a marker box exploded on them, they were lucky enough to have their French families loan them ski clothes. Needless to say, we looked amazing.

Having completely outfitted ourselves in a vibrant array of colors, our little family proceeded to plan meals and buy groceries and necessities for the weekend. Having spent the majority of Thursday buying food, most of us spent Friday actually getting ourselves packed and ready to go for the weekend. Our bus left at about 6:30pm on Friday and was scheduled to arrive at the ski station at about 10.

We got to the ski station a little after 10, and by then we were all starving because we hadn't really had dinner yet. We had planned to have sausage and potatoes for dinner that night, so we got to work on that as soon as we could and scarfed that food down while we watched a movie in one of our cozy apartments. (There were 8 of us, so they split us up into two groups.)

The next morning when we all woke up at about 8, we ate breakfast and then headed over to the ski rental place to get our snowboards and skis. Only three of us had ever skied or snowboarded before, so the majority of us were beginners. We all headed over to the bunny hill to figure out how to handle ourselves. And I made it down without falling! So I hopped back on the ski lift (which was a sort of weird pole system with mini seats on the end that kind of looked like plungers. You put the pole between your legs and it pulled you to the top of the hill while you stood on your skis.) Anyway, halfway up the hill, I was enjoying the ease of the ski lift when all of a sudden, I was falling and I couldn't move my legs in the direction I wanted. My only focus was not losing my grip on the pole that was slipping out of my hand. Finally, after being dragged on my knees without any control, I decided that I should just let go and figure out what went wrong. So I let go of the pole--and promptly faceplanted. I rolled out of the way of my laughing friends who were coming up the lift behind me only to see that the reason I had fallen so suddenly was because one of my skis had popped off of my foot. So I didn't fall at all while I was going down the bunny slope--just up.

Anyway, most of us decided to move on to the next level hill once we'd gotten the gist of the bunny hill down, so we headed over to the other lift and hopped on. But what we thought was a little hill turned out to have a curve in it that you couldn't see from the bottom--the hill was at least twice as high as we had originally thought. But I did well on my first try; I only fell four times on that descent! By the end of the first day, I only managed to get down that hill once without falling, and the rest of the group hadn't had much luck either. We were all exhausted by the time the slopes closed at 4:30, so we went inside, took turns showering, and started cooking dinner.

The next day was much better. I figured out how to get down the intermediate hill without falling, so I decided to step it up a notch and went up the mountain on the real ski lift with Alexa, Kevin, and Josh (the three snowboarders). It turns out that I should never assume I know how tall a slope is just because I can only see so far up. The mountain was, well, a mountain. I was terrified. I had a camera in my pocket, but I was too scared to let go of the ski lift to take pictures. We made it up to the first stop on the mountain trails and got off. Quick side note: French people are all ridiculously good at skiing. What seemed terrifying and dangerous to me was only a beginner level for them. Anyway, we all made it up the mountain and off the ski lift without incident, and then we started our descent. If I had thought the second hill was scary, that was nothing compared to the mountain. There were so many times when I would be approaching a hill/curve with only a cliff on the other side that I would just fall in order to stop myself instead of risking getting killed. The very last hill on the mountain was actually probably steeper than the others, but it was also less scary because I knew that once I got to the bottom of it, I was done. To give you an idea of how steep it was, I couldn't see the bottom from where I was at the top of it. The only way I knew where to go was by watching where the person's head in front of me had disappeared. So I started down the hill, braking the entire way to avoid hurting myself, but I couldn't keep it up forever, so I just tucked into the speed skiing pose--and it was awesome! I was flying down that hill!! The only scary part was that the snow wasn't very powdery, and I was going so fast that any time there was a slight bump, I was worried I would lose control and go crashing into the packed snow. But we all made it down the mountain safely--and I've decided I love skiing. Basically, winter and I should spend some more time together because we get along really well.

On the way home from the trip, the sun started setting on the mountains, and we made it to this beautiful area with a really big lake. It was probably the most beautiful area I have ever seen in my life. You'll have to see the pictures I took from the bus. They should be uploaded soon.



Edit: Pictures are FINALLY available!

Back in France!

Hello, everyone! I'm back in France after having spent probably one of the loveliest Christmas breaks ever at home. My cousin got married--and I got to be there as a bridesmaid (!!!), I got my haircut for the first time in a year, and now I'm back in my beloved France speaking French and making travel plans. (I'll get to that in a bit.)

My two exams were last week, and they went fairly well. I'm not sure when I'll actually find out how I did, but I feel fairly confident I won't fail them. Not only have exams finished, but new classes already started, too. I'm already done with my first week because I only have class Monday-Wednesday, so I'm hoping my schedule will facilitate weekend traveling.

I'm really excited for this semester because I really like all of my classes so far. Last semester, all of my classes followed the exact same format: three-hour lectures once a week. And when I say "lecture", I mean lecture. It was all dictation of our notes without pausing for questions. However! This semester, I have three classes that seem like they will be more interactive. I learn best in an interactive environment, so I'm excited to actually get to speak up in the classroom. (I know, I sound like a nerd. Get used to it.)

Anyway! This weekend, I'm going skiing in the Alps! I'm going with seven of my friends from the program to a little village called Pelvoux that has a population of about 454. I'm so excited! We're leaving tomorrow (Friday) night and coming back Sunday night, so we should have about two days to spend in the snow! I'm not even sure how much I want to go skiing--I've never done it before, so I have a feeling I'll just end up sledding to avoid getting hurt and embarrassed, but my friends and I all have plans to build forts and make snow angels and have a snowball fight. It's going to be great!!